In 1598,  Henri IV, promulgated the Edict of Nantes, authorising the practice of the reformed Church.

       In 1685,  Louis XIV, by the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoked the Edict of Nantes.

       There followed a period of resistance by the protestants known as " the desert " , with secrets meetings. They were persecuted , imprisonned , subjected to " Dragonnades " and sentenced to penal servitude ( galley ).

       Louis XlV, whose armies dominated Europe had to wage a pitiless war against  the Camisards of the Cevennes from 1702 to 1704.

       He had to send three field-marshals one after the oher : field-marshal de Broglie, field-marshal de Montrevel, and field-marshal de Villars. 

       This war was started by an event which took place in  Pont-de- Montvert, at the end of July in 1702 :

       This was the assassination of the Abbot of Chayla , archpriest of Mende and mission inspector in the Cevennes.

       The Abbot  was responsible for leading the repression against the Huguenots in the Cevennes who were fighting for their freedom and their religious freedom. He had captured and imprisonned some young people in his house, in Pont-de-Montvert, in order to send them away to do penal servitude.

        On their way back from the Barre des Cevennes fair,  Esprit Séguier, Abraham Mazel, Couderc, Laporte and a few others decided to go and free them. They set fire to the Abbot's house and assassinated him on the village bridge.                                                                                                                                                           This marked the beginning of the Camisard war which was to set the Cevennes inflame with troup leaders such as : 

Jean Cavalier, Roland, Abraham Mazel, Jouany, Castanet....

       The war lasted for more than 2 years until Jean Cavalier ( baker at Anduze ) met field-marshal de Villars in Nîmes in 1704.

       Not until Louis XVI came to the throne was an edict of tolerance granted to the Protestants  and later in 1789, with the Human rights declaration nobody thereafter could be persecuted  for their religious beliefs.

                                                  The Ron du Chastel

       Why has this name been given to the cottages ? Because they are situated at the foot of  "Ron del Castel". 

       This toponym means " castle rock " : and denotes the site of the former Castle of Montvert ,  Castrum de Monte Verdi in Latin, mentioned in many 13 th and 14 th century documents  as belonging to the Barony of Florac.

       In the Middle Ages a castle towered over the ford from a rocky ridge at Bougès, overlooking the Tarn at a height of over 1000 m, surveying the valley up and down stream.

       Today the site still bears the name  "Ron del Castel", whih is a deformation of "Ranc del Castel".

       On the site itself, you can find carved stone , bonded stone facing in granite, cavities hewed in the rock by hand in order to embed putlogs, numerous piles of carved rock, sorted according to size.

    Note: The elements of historical information com from a study carried out by  Claire Guiorgadzé (architect), on behalf of the parish of Pont de Montvert, with a view to creating a  ZPPAUP.